I know this will all depend on hardware, port, etc. but for general terms, how many game servers should you run on a single box? How much server load is the limit and for memory as well? I am not looking for exact figures but more of a baseline to get an idea of where to begin testing at?

You will need to do your own testing, way way too many factors to even give a rough estimate.

You will need to do your own testing, way way too many factors to even give a rough estimate.

what Xfactor said.

We couldnt begin to discuss this. inface I dont think we should its been discussed sooooooooooooooooooo many times on WHT its un beleiveable.

for a start you havent even told us the specs of your server let alone the connection and location.

but as xfacter said im not going to deleve into it could be here all night.

I'll have to agree with the others - it's way to hard to tell everyone has their own ways of configuring their servers.

I could go on and on but obviously this isn't in any way an easy question to answer.

I wasn't looking for hard numbers, just wondering what one should look for in terms of max load, etc. and if starting with 5-6 games per box would be a good place to start from so it did not take weeks. I guess I was trying to be a little bit lazy and try to avoid testing at low levels unless absolutely necessary.

Joe, what hardware are you using...

I will be starting with dual Xeon 2.4GHZ and 4GB ram using a centos build

thanks to all for any insight they feel like contributing, I most certainly appreciate it!

thanks to all for any insight they feel like contributing, I most certainly appreciate it!

the trouble is ur first comment was so blunt its hard to post something so constructive and accurate.

I'll try too:

breaking down what you said:


I know this will all depend on hardware, port, etc. but for general terms, how many game servers should you run on a single box?


this is hard to answer as it depends on game and game engine and how many plugins / mods for that game that are installed. however usually its a good idea to load no more than 32 slots per core. - this and reasons why can be found on wht and other google search reasults. again this has been answered so many times people are proberly tired of writing the same things

How much server load is the limit and for memory as well?

hard to pin point, most games like srcds engine e.g source games use more ram than cpu... where games like cod NOT talking from experience as ive never run one, i think use more memory.

I am not looking for exact figures but more of a baseline to get an idea of where to begin testing at?

I would say host 3 - 5 games that you own play on them and go from there if your server can handle it or cannot handle then make adjustments from there...i.e add more games, subtract slots etc.

AWESOME!!! Thank you much for the info, it definitely gives me an idea where to start at with testing. I had no idea about the 32 slots/core, great starting point there! Thanks again everyone!

AWESOME!!! Thank you much for the info, it definitely gives me an idea where to start at with testing. I had no idea about the 32 slots/core, great starting point there! Thanks again everyone!

your welcome joe...

thats a rough estimate.... that 32 slot per core...it does depend on quality of gear, and amount of transit though too. so be careful.

some links on wht that I found that might also be useful for you can be found here:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=742853

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=886508

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=867854

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=859961

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=754577

hope these help...these discuss alot about required specs and how many slots people can get on x spec servers.

first link I think is a calculator for bandwidth...personally I dont think its all that accurate but use it as a safe guide.

Flumps, I will be honest man, people like you and Derek are the reasons forums work, thanks again for all of your help and for the links, they are a wealth of good info.

Also you should take a look at srcds.com if you are looking to run srcds servers.

Flumps, I will be honest man, people like you and Derek are the reasons forums work, thanks again for all of your help and for the links, they are a wealth of good info.

shucks... I do try my best to make some quality posts on here.

I have my good and bad days like everyone else though.

I would like to become a mod one day on here but cant see it happening :(

Depends on ur MB 2.4mghz = like 5 servers (i thought)

so I picked up a few servers to test with, got a few single processor Xeons and dual processor Xeons to start testing with and see what kind of benchmarks I can find. Hopefully I will have some decent findings that can give me an idea what I will be able to do with that hardware. I will be sure to post back here with some updates

You will need to do your own testing, way way too many factors to even give a rough estimate.


Agreed, there is no specific number

I am also going to test a windows server 2k3 box against a linux box to see which one better performs. I kinda got a feeling already which one will do better :-)

I also want to play around with the memory to see which will yield better results for specific games.

I am also going to test a windows server 2k3 box against a linux box to see which one better performs. I kinda got a feeling already which one will do better :-)

I also want to play around with the memory to see which will yield better results for specific games.

Are you testing srcds or hlds?

I will be testing both as I am a big fan of Condition Zero and I know alot of folks like Source. Plus testing Source will give me a good idea of memory and server load I think....

I will be testing both as I am a big fan of Condition Zero and I know alot of folks like Source. Plus testing Source will give me a good idea of memory and server load I think....

Cool let me know how it goes :)

Hello I think that servers should be able to do with those specs would be 3-5

Just one answer to the topic title: monitoring.
Make sure you monitor resource usage and act on it. There is no magic number.